The proxy bomb (also known as a human bomb) was
a tactic used by the Provisional Irish
Republican Army (IRA) for a short time in the early 1990s,
whereby people were forced to drive car bombs into British military
targets. It has also been used in Colombia by FARC rebels.[1] The
tactic has been compared to a suicide bomb, although
the bomber in these cases was coerced rather than being a
volunteer.[2]

Contents

First proxy
bomb

In late 1990 the IRA Army Council gave approval for
what was to be the first of a series of proxy bomb attacks. The
plan was to kidnap a member of the British security forces or a
British Army sympathiser, hold their family hostage and force the
kidnapped person to take explosives to a target.

In the early hours of 24 October 1990 armed and masked IRA volunteers took the family
of Patrick "Patsy" Gillespie hostage. Gillespie was a Catholic who
worked as a cook for the British Army and so was seen by the IRA as
a collaborator and legitimate target.

The IRA forced him to drive a car loaded with 1,000 pounds of explosives
to the British Army checkpoint at Coshquin on the border between Northern
Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. When he
arrived at the checkpoint the bomb was detonated by remote control,
killing Gillespie and five soldiers from the Kings Regiment.

At Gillespie's funeral Bishop Edward Daly said the IRA and its
supporters were "...the complete contradiction of Christianity.
They may say they are followers of Christ. Some of them may even still engage in
the hypocrisy of coming to church, but their lives and their works
proclaim clearly that they follow Satan."[3]

Other proxy
bombs

On the same day, there were two other proxy bomb attacks in
Northern Ireland. In one, a 65 year old ex-UDR man, James McEvoy was forced to drive a bomb
into a British Army checkpoint outside Newry. He managed to jump clear at the last
moment, suffering a broken leg, but Ranger Cyril J. Smith QGM aged 21 from B.
Coy. 2nd Battalion Royal Irish Rangers was killed and
thirteen were injured. Smith was posthumously awarded the QGM as he
attempted to warn his colleagues about the bomb rather than running
for cover.[4]

In another attack on Lisanelly Army base in Omagh, the proxy bomber was strapped into the car
to keep him from escaping, while his wife and children were held
hostage. However, the bomb failed to explode.[5]

There were a few more attacks like these in the next month the
last one being a failed attempt to destroy a checkpoint at Rosslea, County
Fermanagh, on 21 December.[6] The
same checkpoint was the subject of a heavy machine gun attack a
week later.[7] Another
proxy bomb wrecked a UDR base in Magherafelt, County Londonderry, in early
February 1991, but there were no fatalities.[8] The
proxy bomb tactic caused some outrage in both the unionist and nationalist
communities. In spite of this, there were a few more attacks before
the tactic was stopped. The final IRA use of proxy bombs came on 24
April 1993, when they forced two London taxi drivers to drive bombs towards Downing Street
and New Scotland Yard. There were no
casualties, however, as the drivers managed to shout warnings and
to abandon their cars in time. A conventionally delivered bomb was
detonated by the IRA on the
same day in the financial centre of Bishopsgate in central London.

Effect of
the tactic

Overall the proxy bomb tactic had the result of discrediting the
IRA's campaign in the eyes of Republicans and the
nationalist community. According to journalist and author Ed Moloney, 'as an
operation calculated to undermine the IRA's armed struggle,
alienate even its most loyal supporters and damage Sinn Féin
politically, it had no equal'.[9]

Moloney has suggested that the tactic may have been calculated
to weaken the position of alleged "hawks" in republicanism – those
who favoured armed action over electoral politics. At the same time
Moloney argues that the widespread public revulsion would have
strengthened the position of those in the IRA such as Gerry Adams who were
considering how Republicanism could abandon violence and focus on
electoral politics. Peter Taylor wrote of the
proxy bombs that, by such actions and the revulsion they caused in
the community, the IRA inadvertently strengthened the hand of those
within the Republican movement who argued that an alternative to
armed struggle had to be found.[10]